Missouri State Supreme Court building across from state capitol in
Jefferson City

The Supreme Court of Missouri is the highest court in the state of Missouri. It was established
in 1820, and is located in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Missouri voters have approved changes in the state's
constitution to
give the Supreme Court exclusive jurisdiction- the sole legal power
to hear - five types of cases on appeal. Pursuant to Article V,
Section 3 of the Missouri Constitution, these
cases involve:

Unless their case involves one of those five issues, people who
want a trial court's decision reviewed must appeal to the Missouri Court of Appeals.
Most of these cases involve routine legal questions and end there.
The Court of Appeals is divided geographically into the Eastern
District, Western District and Southern District.

Certain cases, however, can be transferred to the Supreme Court
- at the Court's discretion - if it determines that a question of
general interest or importance is involved, that the laws should be
re-examined, or that the lower court's decision conflicts with an
earlier appellate decision. This is similar to the process the United
States Supreme Court uses in accepting cases.

Contents

Judicial
Selection

Judges of the court are selected through the non-partisan plan,
nationally known as the Missouri Plan. Under the plan, the
Appellate Judicial Commission submits the names of three applicants
to the Governor. If the Governor fails to make a nomination, the
Commission shall make the appointment. Once the judge has served
for at least a year, he or she will be placed on the general
election ballot for a retention vote of the people. If retained,
judges serve a term of 12 years.

Notable
cases

The following is a list of notable cases decided by the Supreme
Court of Missouri or which came to the Supreme Court of the
United States from the Supreme Court of Missouri. Since 1973,
the Supreme Court of Missouri has heard all cases en banc (before all seven
judges), although before that many cases were heard in panels of
three judges. Cases heard en banc are cited as "Mo. banc"; older
cases heard by a panel are cited as "Mo."

Competency; holding that
the fact that a criminal defendant attempted suicide before trial does not constitute reasonable
doubt as to his competency; reversed by the Supreme Court of
the United States.

Racial
segregation; holding that a state which provides only one
educational institution need not allow blacks and whites to attend
if there is no separate school for blacks; reversed by the Supreme
Court of the United States as not meeting the separate but
equal standard of Plessy v. Ferguson.

Miranda
warnings; holding that Missouri's practice of interrogating
suspects without reading them a Miranda warning, then reading them
a Miranda warning and asking them to repeat their confession is
unconstitutional; affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United
States.

Capital
punishment; holding that the Eighth
and Fourteenth
Amendments forbid imposition of the death penalty on offenders
who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed;
affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Racial
segregation; holding that the Fourteenth
Amendment does not prohibit a state from enforcing restrictive
covenants which would prohibit a person from owning or occupying
property on the basis of race or color; reversed by the Supreme
Court of the United States.

Current
Judges

With the appointment of Zel Fischer in October 2008, there is now a
full allocation of seven judges on the court. The judges rotate the
two-year term of Chief Justice among themselves based on
seniority.[1] The
Chief Justice is Constitutionally empowered to preside over the
court and to be the "chief administrative officer" of the state
judicial system.[2]

Clerk
of the Supreme Court

The clerk of the Supreme Court is responsible for a wide range
of duties, including the supervision of the internal administrative
function of the Court itself as well as the planning and
administrative direction of the Missouri Judicial Conference, the organization of
all the state's judges. The
current clerk is Thomas F. Simon.